| Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen and welcome to you all. It is a great pleasure for me to act a host tonight for this dinner, which is held to celebrate the UK's accession to the European Southern Observatory (ESO). I am delighted too, that we have the opportunity to host this ESO Council meeting, and that we have the ESO Council Members and the principal officials of ESO present here tonight.
I am sure I speak for the entire UK astronomy community when I say how much we are looking forward to participating in ESO and taking advantage of its marvellous facilities. I also hope very much the UK's participation will lead to a strengthening of ESO and a widening of its capabilities for astronomical research.
As Minister for Science, I see my role as the provider of access to world-class facilities for UK scientists rather than the provider of all the facilities themselves. For this reason, the Science and Innovation White Paper 'Excellence and Opportunity', which we produced two years ago, undertook to develop a ten year rolling plan for future large scale facilities, taking account of developments in Europe and elsewhere, to ensure that UK researchers have access to the best facilities in the world.
The Large Facilities Strategic Roadmap, which we produced, represents the first attempt at a ten to fifteen year map of future facility requirements. The aim of the document is to provide a longer-term vision of future requirements of the UK Science and Engineering Base. It reflects the context of future European, or in some cases global, requirements for large scale facilities in order to assess the most effective approach for satisfying UK needs.
International collaboration is a key part of this strategy because the characteristics of these large scale facilities often make collaboration the most effective means of provision: They are expensive to build and operate; they frequently serve national and international users; and they tend to be multi-disciplinary.
The UK astronomy community was also asked, a few years ago, to examine their science priorities for the next ten to fifteen years, and also to identify the facilities required to address those priorities. The message received was clear – joining ESO was the top priority for astronomy.
Our astronomers recognised that the current generation of World-leading telescope facilities are on a scale that can only be achieved through international partnerships. This of course has been an increasing trend for some years and will no doubt become more pronounced for future telescopes under consideration.
The Government responded to the wishes of the astronomy community in the Government's 2000 Spending Review, when it made a special contribution to PPARC of £100m over the next 10 years specifically to allow the UK to join ESO. We are of course very pleased that the UK is now at last a member of ESO. The UK has joined probably the World's leading observatory and UK astronomers will gain access to some of the World's most advanced telescopes including ESO's Very Large Telescopes. Joining ESO also integrates the UK astronomical community with that of continental Europe.
The UK now embarks on a new journey with the joining of ESO. There are some exciting opportunities ahead and I am aware in particular of the ALMA project.
This global project, with Europe, North America, and possibly Japan, all working together promises , once completed, hopefully in 2009, to be the largest ground based astronomy facility ever constructed. The UK is very enthusiastic about becoming involved in ALMA. I know ESO Council has been considering this subject carefully and we look forward to its decision on participation.
The UK currently funds about 5% of World science. This means that over 95% of science is funded elsewhere. We believe, therefore, that strong international relationships are essential; any society that is closed, inward looking and defensive will not long remain at the forefront of science because it cannot take part in global collaboration. I believe that the UK is stronger when it collaborates internationally and I want the UK to be a key player in European and global science.
The message I want to convey to you is very simple. We are very pleased that the UK has finally joined ESO, we are excited by the opportunities that lie ahead, and we hope UK participation will serve to strengthen this renowned international organisation.
Thank you.
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